Placenta Encapsulation - how do doctors/midwives etc react to the request?

I'm totally on the fence about placenta encapsulation - I'm a "crunchy" woman of science so I have no idea which way to go. When I first heard of it I was "yuck" like most people, but as time has gone on I have to admit I am curious.

I know there's not much (any!) formally published research, or at least not enough to give a definitive answer, I love me some supplements and the anecdotal reports sound interesting. But on the other hand, well, there's not much research, is there?

Anyway, regardless of whether it is in reality a pointless thing to do or not I am interested as to whether anybody here has had it done, and what the reaction was of the midwife/consultant when you asked for it? At what point did you ask for it?

I think part of me is afraid I'll lose all credibility by even mentioning it which might make some of my more orthodox but still slightly unusual requests be less likely to be listened to!

I'm having an ELCS (DC4) for medical reasons if that makes a difference, so unless I have PTL, there's a good chance it will be easy to organise beforehand and so on. There's also a very experienced lady who lives very near me who offers it, presumably she often goes to the same hospital I will deliver at so they must have encountered it before. But still I am afraid to ask!

Anecdotal experiences of the asking, the procedure itself as an addition to the birth (did you get faces in the delivery room? were people helpful?) and what encapsulation method you used and whether you felt it made a difference all welcome

I considered it with my first pregnancy mainly to help prevent pnd due to my high risk of developing linked to family history.Midwife was great and she gave me a number of a midwife who had an interest in this to help me. I gave birth at 33 weeks so was not able to do it but it is a developing field of interest. I was willing to do it and I am veggie

I was talking to a woman in my local hospital about placenta encapsulation last year. I'd never heard of it before but she was trying it due to having suffered very badly with PND with her first child.

She'd had a placenta smoothie 12 hours before I saw her. She was expressing loads of milk and looked amazing.

In my opinion, the staff at the hospital in question are almost uniformly unhelpful and out of date in their attitudes to pretty much everything. But there she was, looking and feeling fab, with an encapsulated placenta. If she could do it there, I'm sure you will be able to get your hospital to help you sort it out. All the best.

I am planning a home birth for DC2 due on the 17th, and had PND after DC1. My husband has really latched on to the idea of placenta encapsulation, so we've booked it. At my homebirth visit the midwife said she thought it was a great idea for me, gave her opinion on the dish I had got sorted, chatted about procedure, and said "and it's one less thing for me to have to sort out!" So very supportive really!

As an aside, I donated DC1's placenta to science, but couldn't find anyone who wanted it this time around, despite living in a city with a top university hospital and a lot of medical science centres.

I was asked with my second DC if I wanted to keep the placenta (home birth). I was going to point out there really isn't much research behind but I see you know that In my experience staff have always been respectful of our choices (no vitamin K, that sort of thing) so I would imagine the same re: placenta.

I had it done, I'd been told it might help with milk production and regulating hormones etc but as a very squeamish vegetarian it took me right up til the night before my CS to decide to do it. The woman I contacted was very helpful, and the hospital staff weren't at all surprised (was in a fairly hippy town so maybe they were used to it!). They bagged it up and the woman picked it up while I was still in theatre and then delivered my bottle of pills to me in the hospital two days later. I did take some at the beginning, but kept forgetting to take any so now most of them are in the freezer (my placenta made over 300 tablets which was apparently the most she'd ever done!). I bf my DS for 11 months after not really getting going with my DD so maybe they did work.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences! Nobody has ever asked me if I wanted to keep my placenta before (three different London hospitals - one natural, two CS) so it's nice to know that some places do ask. I'm delivering at Watford hospital this time.

If it were a midwife I wouldn't be at all bothered about asking them, but as I'm high risk and definitely have to have an ELCS it's the consultant I have to ask so I'm a little more wary!!

I think the lady local to me provides a container for you and comes and picks it up herself, so it doesn't sound too complicated. I don't know if I could go for the whole smoothie route though.. I just can't get my head round it!!